Chapter 66

They tried stopping the prince, raising their voices, and pleading. but it didn’t work at all.
They just caused him stress for no reason.

“Maybe His Highness will live like that until he dies. It might be right for us to give up.”
“That’s right. Who can stop His Highness?”

How much time had passed since then?
When Crown Prince Enoch saw the mana lamp flicker and go out, he raised his head for a moment. The fire that lit up the surroundings extinguished due to mana not being infused in time.

“Hm.”

It’s not that the people of the crown prince’s palace were neglecting their work, it was because he never got up from his seat for a moment, not even giving time to replace the mana lamp.
It was natural that even the items supplied to the imperial palace would break down as they were continuously exploited.

‘There’s no one here.’

It was a night when even his aides, restless as they looked at him, could not bear it anymore and disappeared.
Their strategy of revolving around him to irritate him had failed.
As they were the prince’s entourage, they too were busy people and human beings who inevitably had to sleep.

‘They’ll give up after a few days like this, like they always do.’

Swoosh—

He gazed at the sound of rain hitting the window for a moment.

‘It’s quite late.’

It was the middle of the night. It was too late to ask someone to light up the lamp.
But even if he couldn’t call the employees, there was no problem.
Enoch reached for the mana lamp without hesitation. Although his main field was combat magic, he was still a mage. It took him a few tens of seconds to fix the mana lamp.
Thus, Crown Prince Enoch’s rest ended in just one minute.

“…”

He sat down again. Then, he went back and read the page of the document he had read just before. He couldn’t help it; the letters weren’t coming into his head.
The humidity and the sinking atmosphere, the sky so dark that he couldn’t see outside…
These summer nights remind him of the past.

‘I was thinking about something else for a while, but I can’t concentrate.’

The crown prince stared blankly at the window for a moment, then lowered his head towards the papers again.
His attitude was overly steadfast.

‘I’m glad I have something to focus on.’

Of course, he knew that this was an unhealthy way to do things, and he also knew that he was causing concern for his aides.

But… Crown Prince Enoch wasn’t acting childish.
These days, when he closed his eyes, he had bad thoughts. Even when he lay in bed, he was continuously dragged to one day in the past.
It was like he became a child who couldn’t do anything, and struggled as he fell into that helplessness.
Even if he strained his body a little, it was better for him to just work or train.

‘There’s no need to confess something like this.’

Of course, even if they didn’t know the exact circumstances, it was a fact that everyone knew that he hated the summer.
However, he did not want to explain why he overworked his body in the summer.
They didn’t have a clear solution for him anyway.
Only the number of people who were bothered by the summer season would increase.

“Hm.”

Crown Prince Enoch’s eyes paused in one section as he read the document without stopping.
The sunscreen that Yuria added to the lineup… It was a great success in the summer.
While he was unaware, the corners of his mouth rose naturally.

‘Considering that the store opened in the summer, she made a good product.’

He thought that her research and development were great, but she also had a vast insight.
Damaged skin was just one of the things a knight had to deal with.
However, even a class the crown prince did not expect was targeted by Yuria.
As a result, cosmetics were no longer exclusive to a few nobles.

Enoch flipped over to the next page of the document.
It was reported that it attracted not only knights but also people who worked outdoors.
It wasn’t just nobles who could afford it because of high prices…
Nevertheless, it was even more amazing that the net profit was ample.

‘And the deodorant after the sunscreen…’

When he thought of the product, he naturally thought of ‘smell’.
He immediately associated it with the smell of rotting corpses and gritted his teeth.
Why did the word deodorant disturb him so easily despite having encountered it several times during business?

‘Damn summer…’

Something he couldn’t tell anyone, something he couldn’t share, something no one could empathize with.

“Ugh…”

He wanted to be the perfect crown prince. That was why he was alive.
He didn’t want anyone to see him as weak.
It was just a habit of not being able to sleep because of the hot weather.
Rather, he wanted to take the opportunity to be seen as a bit of a workaholic who was deeply engaged in his work.

‘Will it really be okay like this?’

Even if he kept pretending not to know himself, he seemed to be getting sucked in rather than getting out of it.
Like the helpless child who couldn’t do anything in the broken carriage.

***

The next morning.

‘What?’

They met to talk about sales trends.
Appearing in front of Crown Prince Enoch, Yuria somehow seemed less cheerful than usual.
Of course, she must have been very busy with Yunette, and she also attended the meeting because of Vivian’s return to the social world… It was natural to be tired.
But even considering that, she seemed unusually lifeless.

Watching her face quietly, Crown Prince Enoch finally opened his mouth.

“Lady Primrose, is something wrong?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. I just couldn’t sleep.”

Although Yuria answered casually, it made the crown prince even more concerned.
He knew best how hard it would be for people if they didn’t get enough sleep.

“Aren’t you pushing yourself too much?”

It was the same as what his aides said to him. It was a little ridiculous for him to be saying that.

“It’s just that there’s a lot of things to worry about these days. Even when I lie down, I can’t fall asleep right away. It’s not that I don’t have time to sleep because I’m busy.”

As soon as the crown prince heard Yuria’s words, he immediately knew what was going on.

‘Even if she said that, it wouldn’t really be okay.’

Crown Prince Enoch didn’t like how Yuria spoke as if it was nothing, but he didn’t have the right to intervene.
He could say a word or two and worry lightly, but… Beyond that, he wasn’t sure.
He wondered if Yuria would accept those words.

While Crown Prince Enoch was pondering for a moment, Yuria changed the topic of the conversation directly to him.

“Your Highness, did you sleep well today?”
“Of course.”

He lied right away. The crown prince only sat in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment, he didn’t even think about lying on the bed in the first place.
And it wasn’t just today either.

Yuria laughed softly at that.

“Well, though it’s summer now, I think we need to prepare for fall in advance. The weather will get dry and cold, so we should launch exfoliating products for example…”

And in the meeting that followed, they each shared their thoughts on the reported documents and decided what they would do next.
It was not a topic that could be easily settled, so the conversation got considerably longer.
A long time passed.

“Then, shall we proceed like this?”

When Crown Prince Enoch was rubbing his tired eyes while hiding his exhaustion, Yuria took something out of her bag and held it out in front of him.
A kind explanation followed before he could even ask what it was.

“I remembered the last time Your Highness said you couldn’t sleep well. I decided to bring this.”

Ah, right.
When he heard that he looked tired, he just answered casually that he couldn’t sleep, like Yuria.

“I made this myself. It’s called a room spray.”

She made it?
The crown prince opened his eyes wide as he looked at the object whose purpose he couldn’t figure out.

“I’ve never heard of it before. Did the Lady devise it?”
“Shall I say so? Well, while I was making one for myself, I also made one for Your Highness.”

Crown Prince Enoch was momentarily dazed and accepted Yuria’s gift.

“Spray it under your pillow before you go to sleep. It’s a room spray with lavender extract, it has the effect of relaxing the mind and the body muscles.”
“… Ah, by any chance…”

Did she make it because she noticed that he wasn’t sleeping well?
But before she could ask that, Yuria continued refreshingly.

“If it proves effective, it might be okay to release it as a new product. Can I ask Your Highness to also test it?”

If it was a gift, he would have taken it seriously, but if it was a testing product, the recipient could also receive it openly. So that he couldn’t think of rejecting it or anything like that.

“Thank you. Then I will try it too.”
“I’m the one who should thank you.”

And like that, Crown Prince Enoch accepted the spray Yuria gave him.

——